Christmas 2008

The Christmas celebrations with our families have come and gone for this year and we had a great time at both! We enjoyed good food, good company and games along with the gift openings. Christmas Eve was spent with the Gervings in Glen Ullin and Mike & Sandy's house was packed to the brim with family and fun. We also stopped by to see Grandma Schaff at the nursing home on Christmas Eve and I think she enjoyed our company. Christmas morning we got up, had some breakfast and went to Christmas Day Mass in Glen Ullin as well. Here are some pictures from the Gerving celebration:

Jay & Landon working on the Rubik's cube:

Let's get started on those gifts, right kids?

The 4-year-olds:

Lexie dancing around:

There was a dancing/singing Santa at the nursing home that Payton & Sydney enjoyed. Syd even danced with him. Here's a pic of the girls with Santa and Grandma Great:

What Grandmas will do with/for their grandchildren! :)

A couple other pictures of the gift opening at the Gervings:

Mason & Jay with the gift Mason got for his Godfather - a Denver Broncos football mouse which was promptly attached to our laptop here at home once we got back!

After Mass in GU on Christmas morning it was back to Bismarck for the Gerhardt Christmas celebration. Here are some pictures from our day there:

A few years back Jay got the idea to buy what my parents call their "half beagle" - which is a plastic rear end of a beagle that if you put it in the garden looks like a beagle has dug a hole in the ground. My parents are forever asking when they will get the other half of the beagle. My parents decided this year they would "get back" at Jay with a gag gift of their own - a "deluxe" snowball maker!! Jay looks elated at the thoughtfulness of this gift, doesn't he? (I believe a new tradition of gag gifts has officially begun!)

Gift opening began!

Jay & my Dad

Candace & Grandma Vivian:

More gift opening:

After gift opening we enjoyed some great food and then played the game called "I Think" which Tom & Candace got me and Jay for a Christmas gift this year. Lots of laughs were shared during that game. I also got into an intense game of "Sorry" with Gabe, Micaela and Riley (until I got a bloody nose, so then Jay took over for me). I believe Gabe ended up winning. It's pretty cut-throat - haha!!

We got some very nice gifts which of course we are grateful for - but the best part of the holidays is that we live close enough to both of our families that we are able to spend time with both during the holidays. Jay & I talked about that after getting home - how great it is we are able to be so close to our families not only during the holidays but all the time! This will be especially important when Baby Gerving (and any other children we are blessed with) arrives.

Not surprisingly, not only did the beagles get a few gifts for Christmas but so did Baby Gerving! Jay is especially happy with the tiny Elway Broncos jersey that Mike & Carrie gave us back this year for Baby to wear. Jay had bought it for Michaela when she was a baby and Carrie said all three kids wore it when they were little! (It shows some wear and tear and that makes Jay really happy that it got worn so much!) I'm sure he'll have it on Baby every chance he gets!

Baby is approximately 4.5 to up to 6 inches long now - at 16 weeks along. He/she also weighs about 4 ounces and is about the size of an apple, according to one site. In the last week or so I have really noticed some changes in my belly - mainly that it's really started expanding! Despite one night of being sick last week I continue to feel well overall and am happy that the baby appears to keep growing each day!

Besides the gifts we are working our way through leftovers and Christmas goodies. It's a tough job but we, with the help of the beagles, will manage, I'm sure!

Yesterday was Taylor's 8th birthday and we hope she had a wonderful day!

Yesterday I got to spend time with Aimee, my friend from law school who lives in Denver, CO. We did some shopping, went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday's for supper (yum!) and watched a movie at our house last night. Always good to catch up with friends we rarely get to see!

Jay is off ice fishing with our friend Travis today so it's just me and the beagles at home right now. It's a picture perfect winter day - ABOVE zero for once, the sun is shining and no wind! We did get some fresh new snow last night, so Jay had the joy of snowblowing yet again bright & early this morning before going ice fishing! So far, the beagles and I have worked on making birthday cards, address return labels and some other odds and ends around the house. We plan on going through a bunch of boxes to put more stuff away in the house today - I started that process yesterday and got on a roll so I'm hoping the same for today.

I'm sad that tomorrow is my last day off before going back to work next week but I will try to continue to enjoy the time off from work that I get over the holidays! Jay is off of work until Jan. 5th - so I'm a bit jealous!

I plan on going cross country skiing tomorrow morning with my parents which I have not been able to do in MANY years. This is the first winter in a long time in Bismarck that has had enough snow to do so! Tomorrow night is also the big game between the Broncos and Chargers which determines which team will go on to the playoffs this year. The Broncos flag will be flying high outside and I'm sure we'll be dressed up in all our Broncos gear by tomorrow evening! Go Broncos!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season this year! Until next week.....signing off!

Tis the Season...

Yet another Friday afternoon at work almost over! I needed a break again!!

Some of the highlights over the last couple of weeks....

1. Making and decorating cookies with my parents, Tom, Micaela, Gabe and Riley. We did this not last Sunday but the Sunday before and it was so much fun! We spent pretty much the entire afternoon and into the evening a bit making gingerbread men, a gingerbread house, and a variety of other goodies. Everyone agreed that it is fun to make them and even more fun to sample them! Everyone has their own favorites too!!

2. Jerz is feeling better!! Jerz has pretty much fully recuperated from her slipped disc injury from Thanksgiving weekend. We continue to monitor her as much as possible to keep her from reinjuring it, but there have been no other problems so far - knock on wood! We are trying to keep little Bailey from doing the same thing but she is a little more wiley than Jerz and harder to catch and stop from jumping onto and off of furniture! Jay and his buddies constructed some steps for the dogs that should help too...

3. Baby Gerving seems to be doing well! No emergency doctor visits since the one almost two weeks ago and we are so thankful for that! We want to make it to our next doctor appointment which is scheduled for Jan. 5 with no other complications or problems! Baby will be 15 weeks along this weekend. Once we hit that 20-week mark I think it will really sink in how fast it all goes! I have been feeling much better and can now stay up past 8:00 pm I am proud to say! (Well, OK, Wednesday evening I may have accidentally fallen asleep watching TV around 8:00pm or so....)

Oh yes - and for the baby size/food comparison of the week:
How Big is the Baby at 15 Weeks Pregnant? Your baby is a about the size of an orange by pregnancy week 15, between 4 and 4 and ½ inches long and weighing more than 1 ½ ounces!

4. Christmas shopping will end for me/us today!! After work, I'm braving the cold and the crowds to finalize my Christmas shopping for the 2008 season! Hope to get those gifts wrapped by tomorrow morning! Next year I have a feeling there may be just a BIT more shopping involved for the little one!! ;)

5. House Guests. We had Julie and Scott over last Friday evening (before the horrible weather hit us) for pizza, French Silk Pie (thanks to Julie) and to visit. They stayed for quite awhile and we got to catch up with them. It was a nice evening! Plus we got a Denver Broncos gnome out of the deal! (The gnome story is sort of an inside thing...suffice it to say, it was the "perfect" gift from Julie). Who doesn't love a gnome for their new home?

6. A new tradition is born! The sisters-in-law from the Gerving side have traditionally exchanged names for gifts each year. This year we decided to just meet - the 5 of us - to go out to eat and spend a girls' evening together instead. We did that last night - and, though there was a one-hour wait at the Olive Garden, it was well worth it. Good food and good company! I left at around 9:30pm or so (I think?) and Carrie did too to head back to GU. Lynds, Val and Julie stayed until 11:30 I heard, even though the Olive Garden is supposedly only open until 10:00! Wonder how they pulled that one off??

That's all that is coming to mind that was of note over the last week and a half or so....Last weekend was spent (by me) entirely at home. Jay went to Prairie Knights on Saturday for his work Christmas party (I wasn't feeling the greatest that day so I didn't go with) and I'm pretty glad I didn't go. Not only did they have a LONG bus ride home from the casino (due to the weather they went about 20 mph and had to stop several times), but about an hour after Jay got home, he started throwing up. Apparently he wasn't the only one to suffer such a fate - there were others that also got sick. Jay had a rought few days after that but started feeling better yesterday finally.

Other than that, we are looking forward to the weekend and of course next week's family holiday festivities! We're heading to GU for Christmas Eve and then will spend Christmas Day in Bismarck. Jay is taking some vacation after that through the end of the year. I'll continue to "slave away" at work but will enjoy my time off for the holidays as well!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend (stay warm if you can!) and of course a very Merry Christmas! Looks like we're in for some more cold and snowy weather!

Baby's First Pictures

Well I had to go get an issue checked out at the doctor yesterday and they did an ultrasound to check things out and to make sure the baby was doing well. Fortunately, the baby is absolutely doing just fine and they figured out what was going on with me, which was a relief! We are so happy that the baby is doing well and, while we would prefer to have gotten ultrasound pictures under a little less worrisome circumstances, we are happy to have pictures of the little one! Enjoy the pictures! It will be interesting to see how much he/she changes and develops in the next 7-8 weeks until the next ultrasound!

The ultrasound tech said the baby appeared to be developed to 13 weeks, 1 day as of yesterday which gives us a more "concrete" estimated due date of June 14th. Six months to go!

We have a heartbeat!

Today we went in for an appointment where we got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was a good strong heartbeat in the 150s! We also found out we're apparently having a little wiggle-worm, as we could hear the baby moving around a lot as well. So, that must explain why I've been so exhausted - the little wiggle-worm is using up all my energy!! (On a side note, I need to make a correction from my preiovus post - my bedtime isn't really 9:00 or 9:30 it's more like 8:00!) Other than that, everything else checked out good and no complications - so far so good! (We're around 12 weeks along at this point).

Today is also our friend Raumi's birthday! So happy birthday wishes go out to her today!

The last couple weeks have been interesting to say the least. We were able to spend Thanksgiving Day in Glen Ullin which was a lot of fun! I even gave Lexie a new nickname to call her Auntie Lyndsey - oops! Guess she's at the age where she catches onto and repeats what us adults say! :) It was a cute nickname...will have to ask Lyndsey (or Lexie) what it is though...

When we got back to pick up the dogs at my parents' house on Thansgiving evening though things started to not go so well for us. My parents had noticed that Jerz was not herself - wouldn't jump up on them or any furniture as she usually does and then she had started shaking shortly before we got there. Long story short, I took Jerz to the vet the following morning and he diagnosed her with a slipped disc in her back. She had to get a shot for pain along with pain meds for us to give her for a couple weeks and orders for us to keep her from jumping onto or off of anything and to basically keep her from doing much of anything. Easier said than done. She is somewhat self-limiting in that she won't jump up onto things but she is becoming more daring. Our biggest concern is that if dogs re-injure or injure it worse, sometimes it causes paralysis, etc. So, we've been babying her (even more than usual) and she seems to be improving. She still shows some signs of pain form time to time but moves around well for the most part.

We also had a little unwanted house guest starting Thursday evening - a mouse in our house!! Yuck! Jay first heard him inside the walls on Thursday and then Friday morning (at about 5 am after he let the dogs out) the mouse scurried out of the pantry and into a hole that leads to underneath our cupboards, where it stayed until the following morning. So, bright and early Friday morning, there were Jay and I, going through everything in the pantry to wash or throw away!! Jay did get some Black Friday shopping in - he was at Tractor Supply Co. to get the sticky mouse traps at about 7:00am that morning! By Saturday morning, the mouse returned to the pantry and got caught in a trap. We hope that is all the mice we end up having in the house! We are now more prepared with mouse traps downstairs and in the pantry!

The rest of the weekend, one of us basically had to stay home with Jerz (except for the couple of hours on Friday evening when we went to my parents' house for the Thanksgiving dinner with them. I missed out on going to Ryan and Raumi's house on Saturday evening unfortunately, but had to stay home to make sure Jerz would not do anything to hurt herself!

Other than the holiday weekend and all the "exitement" that went with it, it's been mostly just work and the usual for us. The last big push at work before Christmas is upon us!

It's such a relief to know that the baby's heartbeat is strong and that he/she is doing well - we feel very blessed! No better Christmas present that we could ever ask for!! :)

Have a great rest of the week and weekend everyone!

Heading into the weekend....

Needed to take a break from work on this Friday afternoon...As I write this, snow is lightly falling outside - almost as if we are inside of a snow globe. I am anxiously awaiting the Christmas decorations to go up in Downtown Bismarck - that just makes the view from the office all the better during the cold winter months...

Jay & I have been laying low for the most part over the last couple of weeks. I, as you probably know, have a new bedtime usually around 9:00-9:30 p.m., if not earlier on some nights. I seem to be snapping out of the fatigued/sleepiness a bit, though, which is nice. Other than that, despite a few bad days at the end of last week/last weekend, my pregnancy nausea also has gone away for the most part. I know I'm lucky if I'm already through the worst of it this time around! We still have about a week and a half before we hear the baby's heartbeat and I'm trying not to think about it too much - otherwise, I get too anxious for that appointment! I like to keep up-to-date with how big the baby is and what happens each week with it by checking out a couple of online sources as well as books/magazines. The whole development of the baby aspect really fascinates me. From what I have read right now the baby is around 1.5-2.0 inches long, or the size of a medium shrimp, as one site put it!! My friend Missy, who is due at the end of March, tells me that the food/size of baby comparisons continue on throughout the pregnancy - I believe she said her baby is the size of a banana this week! :)

The beagles have been giving us some good practice of getting up in the middle of the night. For some reason, they have been getting up 2-3 times/night wanting to go outside. What's funny about this (well not as funny in the middle of the night) is that they won't go out of the doggy door on their own (even though Jerz, and probably Bailey, know how to get out of it) - so there we are letting our dogs out the doggy door every time they go out!! They will come back in the door- mostly with the promise of a t-r-e-a-t if they do. Anyway, in about 6 months, I told Jay - one of us will be up with the baby and the other one letting the dogs out all night anyway - so we might as well get used to it now!!

As of last weekend, we are the proud new owners of a (used) treadmill and a (new) snowblower. The purchase of the snowblower pretty much guarantees that it will not snow enough to use it the rest of the winter!! ;) Jay is eager to try it out, but I think the snow we are getting today will only accumulate up to possibly 2 inches or so. Don't be surprised if he has it out anyway - trying it out in what's left of our big snow drift in front of the house! :)

The Broncos keep finding ways to win...

This week I had two evenings "out" which was nice. Wednesday was my friend Heidi's birthday but Missy and I joined her for supper at The Bistro on Tuesday evening. The food was great and we had a blast talking and catching up. We had not gone out anywwhere together since the end of summer. On Wednesday, after volleyball a few of us went up to Paradiso. We stayed and talked for a couple hours! I had myself a virgin pina colada and decided that in this economy that virgin drinks are the way to go!! Almost cheaper than pop!!

This weekend we get some "practice" with child care as we are babysitting Ran and Julie's kids overnight at our house Saturday evening into Sunday morning! Should be a fun time - and we hope the kids have fun too! Our house is not very child-friendly yet (no toys, etc) but it own't be long until it is! Ran and Julie are thankfully going to provide some games/movies, etc so taht we can keep the kids entertained!!

Other than that, life is going along pretty normally. We eat, sleep, work, have some fun and get up and do it all over again!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanksgiving is coming soon - yay!!

The last couple of weeks....

Well, I realize that I have been remiss in my "duties" to update our blog lately. I will blame it on the fact that we don't have internet at home, at least not yet!

Since the last time I posted...here are some highlights and lowlights: Again, sorry no pictures, I keep forgetting to bring the cord that connects our camera to the computer so I can post some pictures on here...

HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Pumpkin carving and Halloween. The day before Halloween we went over tho Lyndsey and Nick's to help them get ready for their big Halloween party. We all got into some pumpkin carving. Jay did a Broncos pumpkin (of course) and Nick and Lyndsey had a bunch of Twins stensils for the pumpkins. They all turned out well and it was fun to get into the spirit of Halloween! (Again, I have pictures - will have to post them later).

As for Halloween night, we had some neices and nephews up trick-or-treating and then we went to Nick and Lyndsey's party. Payton was a bride and Sydney was Princess Belle. Taylor was Hannah Montana, Landon was Spider Man and Lexie was a ladybug. Jay was a Ghostbuster and I was a vampire. Quite the combination! Pretty much everyone at the party got into the spirit of the holiday and dressed up. Including two individuals who came into the part with their witch costumes completely covering their faces. It took quite awhile to figure out who they were. In the end it was revealed that it was Ran and Julie! They "won" 1st place in the costume contest and deserved it - they had us tricked for quite awhile!

2. The weather. Well at least up to about mid-week last week. The weekend of Halloween it got up over 70 degrees, which is unheard of around here! Also, post-blizzard, we have some pretty nice scenery with the frosted trees and snow on the ground (to cover up most of the ugly brown bare ground and trees).

3. The view of the wildlife from our house. (Which, as of now, consists of lots of pheasants at around their feeding time). Also the nightly view of the city from our house - it's just cool to see the lights of town come on every evening through our living room windows. So peaceful!

4. Broncos victory. What a great comeback win for the Broncos last Thursday night! I napped through the part of the game where they were not playing well and woke up in time to see the big comeback!

5. Grandmas. On Nov. 3, my grandma turned 86. We had a nice family birthday party for her at the community room at the new apartment complex she lives in. On Nov. 6, Jay's grandma turned 85. We got to visit her on Sunday morning and got to share some good news with her. She seemed to be in good spirits (she also had some other family visitors who were going to have lunch with her at the nursing home that morning). We shared our good news with my grandma later that evening, when she was out for supper at our house. About 45 minutes after my grandma got home, I got a phone call from my cousin - apparently my grandma got on the phone as soon as she got home to spread the news to the rest of the family! Too funny!

6. GOOD NEWS! Sometime in mid-June next year Jay and I are expecting our first baby!! We have told family and a few close friends so far (probably the same people that are reading this). The pregnancy is going on 9 weeks along, so it's still early, but we decided to share the news anyway. And, if my grandma has anything to do with it, most of Bismarck should know the news by the end of today! :)

Also - to see & hear the reactions of the family members has been fun! We had Syndey and Payton tell Chris & Val and Ryan & Raumi on Saturday night. (Sydney first asked me if I had a puppy in my belly). Telling Mike & Sandy and Lyndsey & Nick in person was also fun. They were all smiles. Grandma Schaff didn't get too worked up but was happy about the news. My mom started crying, which in turn made me cry. And of course the rest of the family was happy. Lots of hugs and congratulations!

I also have to thank Val G. for the little windbreaker Denver Bronsos onsie that she has been saving all these years! It is so cute - and the perfect first baby gift! Just in time for the little one to wear next fall/winter during the football season - boy or girl!

LOWLIGHTS: (Although I shouldn't focus on the negative...but there's just a few)
1. Poorly installed front door. Before the blizzard hit, an inch of driving rain pounded us on Wednesday evening. Our front door was apparently not well-installed and a ton of water leaked in through the bottom of the door. Jay was up until about 4:00am that night (until it quit raining) soaking up the water with towels and then drying them. Good news is that we got it fixed (knock on wood).

2. The weather. I don't mind snow but that rain storm and blizzard caused some havoc with the door and the dogs had a hard time with it too. Next time, I'll take the snow without the wind please!!

3. Direct TV satellite installers. It took them coming out 3 times to our place to get it installed right. And a whole lot of phone calls from Jay to get them to take care of it!

That's all for lowlights! For now, we're enjoying sharing our good news with family and friends! We are cautiously excited, and we hope and pray that everything will continue to go well! Our next appointment won't be until the week after Thanksgiving, when we will get to hear the heartbeat for the first time!! In the meantime, we have about 7 months until this little June bug arrives, and I'm sure we will not realize how fast the time will go!

Settling In

Well we have really started to settle into our new home after a little over a week. The beagles are adjusting pretty well for the most part. They still hate their doggy door so we may be replacing it with a little more user-friendly type of dog door. They don't seem to mind their little doggy area of the garage where we keep them when we leave the house. They do have the two old couches from the trailer though - so I think they like those.

We continue to slowly unpack things at our house. Key word - slowly. We seem to be able to spend money on the house at a very rapid rate, however. Seriously, buy stock in Lowes, Target and Walmart. We are almost single-handedly keeping those places open! ;) All part of home-ownership, I realize!

Last Sunday, we went to the T Wolves/Nuggets game at the Civic Center, which was fun! We have some pictures from it but with the camera we have now, they didn't turn out very good (any sort of motion and less than bright lighting usually causes blurry pictures). Hmmm...think it's time to invest in a new camera - this one is about 6 years old I think!

Last week Monday I had my first trial as an attorney at this law firm - and it went pretty well overall. We were able to get our clients to agree on about 90% of everything before hand so the issues were limited at trial, which helped. I'm definitely getting some good experience in front of judges lately! Exciting and nerve-wracking all at once!

This Saturday we went to Taylor's v-ball game at the Y. There was a time during one of the games where the other team kept serving at Taylor and she kept hitting it back over and scoring on them. Jay said if he were coaching the other team he would have called a "time out" and told her not to serve to Taylor. He also explained to me that it was that "Gerving domination" showing through!! Maybe just a little bit of a proud uncle shining through already!

In other news, we have purchased our Halloween costumes! Those of you going to Nick & Lyndsey's on Friday evening will see what they are then...otherwise, you'll just have to come trick-or-treating at our house to see what we came up with!

Today marks Bailey's "2nd birthday" with us! In other words, 2 years ago today is when we adopted Bailey from the pound! Since we don't know how old she is or what her birthday is, we consider our day of adoption her birthday! She still has issues with people she doesn't know (gets scared and goes to hide whenever people come over) and we've had our challenges with her over the years, but I can't imagine life without the little squirt!

Other than that, it's just another "manic Monday" and the start of another work week. Jay and I have been carpooling to and from work each day, taking turns dropping each other off. It seems to work quite well and we're saving on gas money overall by not having to drive the Durango except on special occasions. Plus, that gives us probably 30 minutes of quality time talking to each other while we drive with each other each day! ;)

Have a great week everyone!!

Moved in...and it feels so good!

We did accomplish the task of moving into our new home this past Friday (which happened to be Jersey's 6th birthday - lucky dog gets a new house for her birthday). With the help of friends and family the moving in process went incredibly quickly and smoothly. We couldn't have asked for better weather as well! We really appreciate everyone's help!

Now...the unpacking part might take awhile!! However, on Saturday my mom and Val W. came over and helped me unpack and put away everything in the kitchen, which was such a huge help to us! Jay got stuck with putting things together that day - which I could tell he thoroughly enjoyed. Just ask him about how much he likes putting together the barstools I bought! ;)

The beagles made it out to the house for the first time on Saturday evening. The first couple hours consisted of them sniffing the place up & down until their little noses just about fell off! Bailey had to have a couple "time-outs" in the kennel to get her settled down but we survived the first night. On Sunday they really started to settle in - until we had to leave them for the first time in the garage while we went to the Timberwolves/Nuggets exhibition game at the Civic Center last night. Overall, they are doing a good job adjusting though which is nice. We were a bit worried about the transition for them and how they would behave!

We will continue to try to get everything put away and then will make plans for a proper housewarming party sometime soon! :)

For now, we feel very happy and blessed to be able to be in our beautiful new home!

T Minus 5 Days

Just a few pictures as we head into the last week before moving into the house...

We're set for closing on Friday at 11:00am. We'll start moving in that afternoon/evening. Let the moving and unpacking festivities begin! :)

Have a great week everyone!

One week to go!

Well we have one week go to until we close and move into the new house!

I have posted some pictures below from last night. As you can see, some more flooring was done along with other work. Things are going on schedule, which is great!

Laundry room:

Guest bath:

Living room fireplace (obviously top of the mantle and the cap piece for the bumpout weren't in yet):

Master bath:

As we were leaving last night, our cabinet guys were starting on the crown moulding on the cabinets:

When we arrived home (Mom, Dad, Jay and I), I opened the door to find that the beagles had pulled off yet another canine caper. This time, they absolutely blew up the garbage at my parents' house!! I had to take pictures - there was no major damage done but it was quite a mess to clean up! Those dang dogs!

Other than that, we are just SO ready for this work week to be over!! Jay will leave later this afternoon to go pheasant hunting in GU. My dad is leaving as well to go to Pollock for pheasant hunting and fishing for about a week. My mom is going with Tom to Minneapolis today. So, I will be home alone for most of the evening, though my aunt will be coming to stay later on in the evening. I plan on spending some time this evening vegging out and getting caught up on Days episodes that I have DVR'd! ;) I'm sure the beagles will be more than happy to join me - they are the ones that have to watch Days after all! ;)

I may post a few more pictures of the house that I saved on our computer at home at some point. I'm going out today to meet with a window covering guy to get an estimate on some blinds, etc. I am pretty sure that our cabinet guys finished up their work last night so I may have more pictures of the completed work as well to post later on today!

We're excited about our big day next week (and a little nervous about the whole thing). I know we'll have lots of help moving and putting things away!

Let the countdown to the weekend begin! T minus 9 hours...

Mad Dash

Hello to all...just a quick post on house updates as they occur...

This past weekend, Jay, Tom, Dad and I managed to finish the hardwood flooring in the master bedroom and a few rows down the hallway with the flooring we had available to us. We are happy to say, the flooring installation for us is now over - with the guys from the flooring store set to finish it up this week.

Here are a few pictures of the bedroom that we finished:

My dad also had to get a picture of me using the miter saw. Jay said any dad would be proud to see his daughter using power tools like that. I think he was right!

"Nothing to it" :)

As for the rest of the week - it's a mad dash to the completion of work on the house. All flooring should be in by the end of the week. The whirlpool tub should be tiled as well. The cabinets and fireplace mantle, etc also are scheduled to be done this week. Our exterior pillars should be done in the next couple days. Baseboard trim, the rest of the lighting and plumbing fixtures, and other odds and ends should also be done this week or early next week. October 17th is still a possibility for the closing/moving in date, but we might just make it in by the skin of our teeth.

A lot of things hinge on whether the ONE part for the whirlpool tub arrived today. That's what it comes down to. One part! This is the part that has supposedly been on it's way for weeks now. I'll believe it when I see it!

I'm hoping that any pictures I post at the end of this week or weekend show this week-long flurry of activity that is supposed to happen. We'll cross our fingers and hold our breath until then....

Besides the house...yikes, work is kicking my butt right now! I just keep saying, wake me up in two weeks. Tomorrow I have a Supreme Court argument. It's probably best we're very busy with house stuff or I would probably be way more nervous than I am right now! I have gotten the opportunity to argue in front of the Supreme court here in ND once before, when I interned with the State's Attorney's office in 2005, but it's been almost 3 years. Then, I have my first trial on my own (since working for this firm) scheduled for Oct. 20th! I may be a bit anti-social until my two big court dates and this house stuff is done!

Have a great week everyone - I'm done with my break and gearing up for a few more hours of preparation for tomorrow!

Cabinets & Countertops!

Just a quick update to the blog tonight with some pictures of the cabinet/countertop installation as of tonight. They should be finishing up at least almost all of the work by tomorrow night on this.

We'll start in the kitchen (crown moulding yet to go on):

The island will have an eating bar which will be put on tomorrow. The pantry door will also match the cabinets & will be installed soon as well.

Master bathroom:

Guest bathroom:



They have not done the laundry room yet but that will be the same cabinets & countertop as the guest bath.

Now, if only the rest of the workers were as effeicient as the Fesers have been with helping with flooring and doing our cabinets!!

The rest of the wood flooring will not arrive until next Monday so we are either going to have Carpet World finish the installation (if they will do it at no cost) or else we will have to finish the installation next week/weekend, which would probably set us back on the closing by a week or so. Not the biggest deal in the world but it was pretty disappointing and frustrating that the flooring was supposed to be there TODAY!! Ugh!

Oh well, focus on the positive, right? The cabinets & countertops and hardware looks awesome, as far as I'm concerned! It really feels like it's more like a real house now! :)

Progress!

Yesterday brought more progress in the hardwood flooring installation at the house.

I had to add a couple pictures of what my contribution was yesterday afternoon. I helped Jay install the last 4 rows in these two pictures. Ran had also come over in the morning to help Jay.

After I left, the real progress was made by Jay, Jake, Dan & Greg! Seriously, these guys are awesome...and a little crazy, but in a good way!

Here's where they got us as of 10:00pm last night (they stayed a couple more hours after I left):

They will finish what they can this afternoon/evening, which will probably consist of part of the long hallway and into the master bedroom. We ended up with quite a few "bad" cartons of wood flooring, with cracking in the coating. So, we have to wait until next week Wednesday to get the replacement cartons. We plan on finishing up the hallway, entry and master bedroom late next week & into the weekend.

In other news...today not only marks Val & Chris's 10th wedding anniversary, but it is also the one-year anniversary of us starting our blog. One year, 77 posts! :) A lot has happened and changed in the past year and we look forward to what the next year brings!

My parents fly in from their trip to Hawaii this morning. Then, they get to enjoy us and the beagles living in their house for the next 3-4 weeks - lucky them!!

Tomorrow we will head to GU for Mike & Sandy's 40th wedding anniversary party! Can't wait - it should be a great time! :)

Have a great weekend everyone! TGIF!